Mr. Bob Ransom is the Chairperson of the Administrative Council of the International Board of Trustees of ACPF. He has been Senior Advisor since 2012 at the Ethiopian Center for Disability and Development (ECDD) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. ECDD is a local, non-governmental development organization that works in collaboration with government and other development organizations to promote and facilitate “disability inclusive development” – the inclusion of children, youth and adults with disabilities in mainstream health service delivery, education, work opportunities and development programs in the country. ECDD is unique in that it intentionally seeks, trains, and employs young university-educated women and men with disabilities to implement its projects.

Prior to co-founding ECDD and serving as its first Executive Director, 2006-2011, Mr. Ransom worked for the International Labour Organization (ILO), 1986-2005, first as Africa Regional Vocational Rehabilitation Specialist, then Deputy Director of the ILO Eastern Africa Sub-Regional Office in Addis Ababa, then ILO Senior Disability Specialist in Geneva. From 1978-1985 he served as Director of Africa Programs, then Director of International Programs for Goodwill Industries of America, the largest private employer of persons with disabilities in North America. Mr. Ransom has an MA in International Administration with minors in Economic Development and International Relations of Africa from American University, Washington, DC, USA (1973), and a BA in Sociology from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA (1968).